Handle Animal tricks

[kobbold]

Hi all

A pure rule question (for it is the source of great discussions on another forum) concernins "handle Animal".

The trick "down" says : An animal that doesn’t know this trick continues to fight until it must flee (due to injury, a fear effect, or the like) or its opponent is defeated.

The "Push" action says you can force an animal not knowing a trick te perform it...

A DM argues that since you must (in the text of the rules) KNOW the trick down for the animal to perform it, you con't "push" an animal to perform "down" during a fight as the animal is attacking an ennemy of his.

What do you think about it?

[BigNorseWolf]

Your dm is being a pedantic idiot and trying to get your animal killed. Beat him with a newspaper to the beat of some Selene Dion music.

[kobbold]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Your dm is being a pedantic idiot and trying to get your animal killed. Beat him with a newspaper to the beat of some Selene Dion music.

It's not Mine for I am a DM too... But well, better to ask the question on the official messageborads than to argue for hours. ^^

[Allia Thren]

Push is exactly for that, yes you can push an animal to perform Down.
However its a fullr ound action (unless AC then its move) and a DC of 25, and since oyu're in combat, you can't take 10. So its going to be hard anyway.
Makes sense, your dog is not trained to stop fighting, so getting it to actually stop takes more effort than just yelling a command.